No. But, as Mark Twain said, history may not repeat, but it sure does rhyme.

Having been stung by the suddenness of the Lehman debacle and its dramatic fallout on global economies, governments and central banks are much more aware of how fast things can go wrong and how quickly and aggressively they need to respond.

Unfortunately, the amount of ammunition they’ve got to direct at the problems is limited.

Official interest rates are at historic lows across the developed world. At the same time, political pressure and uncertainty about the ultimate implications of unorthodox policy are constraining central banks in what else they can do.

Many observers are coming to the conclusion that fiscal policy would be the more powerful force. But here too, governments are running into walls. Countries like those at the euro-zone’s periphery have been shut out of the credit markets, which means they’re dependent on richer-country handouts. But richer countries are facing voter rebellion. Politicians everywhere are growing nervous about expanding deficits ever further. Fiscal austerity has become the universal mantra.

Even developing countries, which weathered the 2008 storm better than the developed world, are running out of policy wriggle room. The explosion of fiscal and monetary measures to stem the 2008 crisis exacerbated huge distortions within their economies. These are playing out as bubbles, generalized inflation and mountains of bad debts.

There is also less inclination for governments to cooperate on further measures.